17 replies to this topic

[studinchair]

today i was at the mall and I saw a friend I have not seen since my accident. he has always said some dumb things before but I think this one topped it off " gary i don't know how you can be so happy if this would have happened to me I would have done killed myself" I was like what the hell or you talking about....
Anybody else have some dumb stories
gary

[hillarymcarter]

People tell my husband that all the time!! Or they are like..."Wow, you look so good" and they just stare like they've seen a ghost...he's always like "did you expect me to look like shit?"
The funniest is when my best friend comes over. She's a nurse and she's pregnant so she is very concerned with comfortable shoes. She always looks at Bruce's shoes (which are crocs...www.crocs.com) and says "Are those comfortable?" to which he always replies "yeah, they are so comfortable I can't even feel them on my feet!" This conversation has happened about 5 times now...it only gets funnier everytime it happens. She still doesn't understand why we laugh.

[Simon]

Great quotes.
Trouble is until you are in our situations or live with someone who is disabled you can never comprehend being in that position. I never could pre injury........

[ASHLEYTHOMPSON]

Some complete idiot that knows John came to our door one day with a pair of steel toe work boots. Brand New.
He wanted John to buy them. "these are brand new and are steel toe, i'll sell em to ya for a hundred bucks".
Friggen idiots!!!!!!!

[hillarymcarter]

....Bruce would've bought them!!!! He wants to wear his steel toes so bad and I won't let him!

[gazrobsuk]

I think generally people mean well but just don't realise. As a 'walker' people assume you are not too bad never mind my chronic pain & less than great hand/arm function & I need help with dressing & bowels etc.

Only today I answered the door & the chap who's never seen me before said (trying to be friendly) "oh dear you're struggling.. what have you done to your leg then?"

errrrm "actually I'm disabled mate quite badly" but I guess coz I can stagger/walk with stick to the door he doesn't realise (let alone ever heard of an SCI) but I don't get annoyed any more ( I did once when I was in my chair & someone patted me on my head & said certain patronising things in an attempt to be friendly)

As I said being a walker people associate that with not bad etc.. personally I'd swap the walking for full hands & arm function & no pain but we can't pick & choose. Bet that causes some comments

Gary

http://www.gazrobs.freeuk.com

[hillarymcarter]

Bruce coaches pee wee football (7-8 year old boys) and they would always ask him "so, you oughta be outta that chair in 8-10 weeks, huh?" I don't know where they got that from, but it was really cute.
It was so adorable to see him out on the field with all the little boys hanging off his wheelchair! They didn't understand the concept of not being able to walk. I love kids...they are very accepting and they don't mind asking the questions that everyone else wants to!
One little boy speared the tackling dummy and jammed his neck. Bruce told him that if he didn't quit doing that he would end up in a wheelchair like him..the little boy said "cool"! Bruce had to explain that it wasn't cool!

[joisliniad]

I don't think people meant bad when they make comments. I work with disabled people, Itrained them to be more independent, and I look at them as a regular person, and I try really hard in my work to get them as much as independt as they can be. One time I was joking with my very good friend, who is a paraplegic, and I pushed him in his hsoulder, like I push many other people and here he goes down to the floor backwards, I was glad we were sititng in the floor. Idon't see his disabilities when I look at him, and he does everything other people do except walk, so his behavior is not disabled, his mind is not disabled, so he can be seen by other as a regular person. I think he would wear steel toes shoes too if it wouldn't be because the brace doesn't fit on it, and it would be too heavy for him to drag when he walk for therapy. what I want to say is that sometimes people pickinto everything and become too sensitive towards others commments. It is like discrimination, yes there is discrimination in this world, but it you look to be discriminate all the time, you would believe that every negative behavior in others is just toward you and aimed toward you to be discriminate.

[ton-up-gaz]

the thing that makes me always smile is when we get telephone calls from credit card suppliers/store cards,they always ask how are you today? and then ask the same old question would you like sickness and redundancy cover sir? feel like asking will it make me walk !!

[hillarymcarter]

You know those magazine subscription services that call and con you into buying like 50 magazines a month? After being tricked by one, I found a new method to dealing with them. When they ask if I want their magazines I always say "Wow, you guys have magazines in brail?" They always promptly hang up on me!

[ton-up-gaz]

my wife and i have to laugh when asked in cafe's the waitress will ask mandy if i want any sugar with my tea,to wich she will ask me then i reply to her and she then tells them

[hillarymcarter]

That happens all the time to us!!! I guess people think that Bruce can't talk because he is in a chair. Or maybe they think we speak in code to one another...I think next time it happens I will start speaking in a strange code of squeks to him!

[Jilly]

Once my partner got asked by a male friend(?).."Have you ever had a good fxxk?" the 'friend' was very drunk at the time, it was before my partner and I got together but we were part of the same group of friends, I was there at the time though and was absolutely mortified! He just replied that yes he had had a few!
Maybe he was supposed to have been born in a chair!!!!! Some people just dont get it!!

[keps]

ton-up-gaz, on Nov 16 2005, 05:08 AM, said:

my wife and i have to laugh when asked in cafe's the waitress will ask mandy if i want any sugar with my tea,to wich she will ask me then i reply to her and she then tells them

LOL! Good idea!!

[russ1]

Only got seriously pissed off a few times with stupid comments.

Worst was when a group of SCI's and I had all been water skiing with some AB friends and afterwards 3 SCI's and 1 AB went to the pub for a meal and a few drinks. Doddery old dear comes over when we were in bar after meal and goes up to the AB (ignoring the SCI's she had to go past to reach the AB) and says "Hello, hope you don't mind me asking but are you on a day out from a Hospice or Hospital" !!! We then got her life history of working as a Nurse. And she was still as patronising as hell even after we'd explained her mistake.

The normal "I could do with one of those" comments about the wheelchair from strangers who think they're tired from to much walking or standing now gets met with "I'll swap it for your legs replies"

[Kris]

I know people generally mean well but i get so tired or hesring the same annoying comments time and time again. I go out to the only nightclub my town has frequently and every time i get these same set of comments-

* Mature age women and extremely intoxicated me screaming and making a scene about how great it is to see me out (almost asking for applause from people around me). I feel like saying where do you expect me to be on a saturday night, sleeping at my grandmas house?

* Young extremely intoxicated men offering me things because they "know how i feel". I will re explain this cos that doesnt sound right. For example i had a guy come up to me and offered to buy my drinks so long as he could give me a pep talk about how i need to (excuse the pun) stand up for myself and ask for what i wanted. Implying that i was to scared and shy to order my drinks. But its ok he knew how i felt cos his brother is blind (What the?!?!) Another time a man insisted i go in front of him and every one else in the hotdog stand line becos he knows how i feel, his sister has spina bifida. I just said mate i dont have spina bifida and im quite happy to wait my turn, to which he then made a big scene.

I hope im not being rude but it irritates me so much.

[wheelie182]

I work in an electronics store, where we have a back desk, where customers ask us questions, and when im behind the desk it looks like im sat on a chair, one customer said to me jokingly, but not knowing i was in a wheelchair, so mate are you gonna get off your ass and give me a hand !!!?!

to which i replyed sure, and wheeled myself to help him,

he sure felt stupid,

Dumbass!

[debs]

Just leaving a cafe today when an old bloke said "no speeding in that". If I could I would have pissed myself laughing!

The best one so far was when I was in a pub and I was chatting to a bloke I vaguely knew, he said "God I didn't realise you couldn't use your hands, how do you wank someone off?" to which I replied "that's something you'll never find out"